Mile Upon Mile

 Another cool morning of just 40 degrees. Lola was checked as soon as it was light enough to see but her udder is about the same as yesterday. After the walk I left to pick up a package at the post office then drove to Hoerr Vet clinic in Morton to pick up Emma's pills. On the way at the stop sign at Smithville and Hanna City Glasford rd there were two more army vehicles heading down Smithville. 

There MUST be a new army base or something near by.  I don't get the newspaper or watch the news on TV so maybe I'm not very well informed. As soon as I got home a couple halters and leads were thrown in the truck and I was on the way to Middle Grove to pick up Galena. It has been 23 days since her last cover so she needed to be teased.    I started hiking and came to a most unusal thorn tree. This had thorns growing out of the bark.

Long spikes growing all along the main trunk. Most locust trees have thorns on their branches I've never seen them coming out of the trunk like this. The branches themselves were a tangled mess of thorns

Check out these daggers. I would not want to run into this tree.

Nor would I want to wear a crown made out of these branches. Is this the tree the soldiers used? A bit farther up the hill came a herd of white tailed deer. It is amazing how long and thick those white tails are.

I never thought of deer having that much tail before.

The deer in the picture below is not the same deer in the picture above. I saw more than 20 today.

The horses were near the round pen, check out Galena in the picture below. You may need to click on it to see what else was caught in this picture.

As Soul was with Galena they were both haltered then left so I could check the rest of the horses. Below is Jury. I checked her udder which is beginning to develop. She is due April 28th so even though I didn't have room in the trailer on this trip I decided not to wait until next week to bring her in but make two trips today.

Below is Jewel who is due June 6th but usually delivers a couple weeks early.

Left is Rosaleigh and right is Tatiana. Rosaleigh is due July 4th and Tatiana is due June 12th.

Below is Indy, she is our last mare due in 2021 and is due July 15th.

Mika is right and Madiera is left. They were off in the trees grazing. Madiera is due the same day as Tatiana, June 12th.

Hadassah is pictured below, she is due June 7th. Hadassah is also for sale as a 2/1 package for $7000.00 but ONLY if she is purchased before May 1st. 

She is half Friesian, her sire is Raven, she is in foal by Evan for a 75% Friesian foal AND she rides. Below is Rosaleigh.

Galena and Soul (due April 28th) were led down to the trailer, loaded and taken to the farm. Soul was asked to back and she backed out very nicely. Galena decided to turn around, I was holding Soul's lead rope when Galena tried to turn around instead of backing up. She bumped me into the trailer, my foot came down on a fresh slimy pile of bright green horse manure and I slid right off of the trailer onto the ground on my bum. When I hit the ground I could see Galena stepping down off of the trailer so I quickly rolled out of the way covering myself with more freshly pooped out green manure. I was very thankful not to be stepped on and even more thankful no one was around to take a video. The two horses were put in the breeding shed paddock then I walked down to the house to clean up and change clothes.  Before heading back out to pick up Jury Galena was teased. The good news was she is not showing at all. That doesn't mean she is pregnant, just not in season. I can schedule an ultrasound to find out if she settled.  IF she did settle she would be due March 8th, 2022. When I got back to Middle Grove Mika was standing in the round pen and the others were grazing around it. Jury stood while she was haltered then led nicely down to the trailer, loaded up and taken home.

  Jury was put in the paddock next to Valiant. Lola was moved in with the yearlings and the back gate opened so they had plenty of room to adjust to each other. Karin, Magda and Isaiah arrived to head out on the trails. Isaiah was given Ripper to ride today. 

Karin rode Sangria and Magda rode Oksana. At 4:30 pm Mark and I left for Pekin, IL to meet Amy and Ken at Bob Evans for dinner. Today I drove to Morton and back (50 miles) Middle Grove and back twice (96 miles) and Pekin (28 miles). We really enjoyed dinner and conversation, stretching our meal out for more than an hour. When we got back there was a message from the lady interested in buying Rosalie's filly. She is mailing the deposit. She won't be marked sold though until that comes but she is VERY excited about owning her.